Needless to say, I am TIRED. I’m not going to bother with pictures until I have a finished Hoodie to show you.
I was a little busy this weekend. I think the realization that SAFF is barely a month away and I had most of the back of the CPH done, but little else kind of caused me to kick it into high gear with the knitting. Behold:
(Sorry about the crappy photo. The sleeve is not really that dark.)
Saturday afternoon Darlene came over to do some spinning. She was so very charming and sweet and a lot of fun. And came with very yummy treats.
She also brought me the little pumpkin plate!
And some for The Boy:
(We like our clutter to be cluttered.)
He ripped into them as soon as he found out they were for him.
And I did not get a single picture of Darlene or her spinning wheel. She was spinning some lovely roving she bought from Elizabeth at ArtWalk. I did, however, take a picture of the Corriedale roving she left for Elizabeth and me to split up. Complete with cat.
I’m not sure if Chloe is developing a taste for roving or if she just smelled Darlene’s cat. But either way, she did not want to leave the roving alone.
Oh, and me? I finally finished spinning this Merino wool I got from Shepard’s Corner last year at SAFF.
This is a little more true to color. Well, at least the colors in the roving.
It’s actually kind of a dark teal color in the hank. I’ll try to get pictures of it sometime in the near future in proper lighting.
This picture is for Stick. See? Knitting. The knitting, however, doesn’t stop me from having the crazy thoughts. Sometimes, it just helps focus the crazy.
I’m pretty sure you didn’t want to hear that.
Ahem.
The more I work on this sweater, the more I like it. I’m really glad I decided to knit the cables in red. Red and grey are probably my most consistently favorite colors. Well, technically grey is not a color. It is a shade. But whatever. I also like that there is just enough going on with the pattern to keep the knitting interesting, but not too much to make it frustrating to knit while trying to watch the TV.
[WARNING! This is an extremely long post. You may want to just scroll to the bottom and look at the pictures if that's all you're here for.]
Saturday, B and I headed off to Ikea in his brother’s truck to buy some furniture for our bedroom. The majority of our combined furniture has that certain Early American Post-Divorce Chic going for it and we felt it would be nice to have matching furniture. And a new bed. Oh god, we needed a new bed.
The drive down was rather uneventful except for the part where B couldn’t remember the exit to go to Ikea. We only drove past it 3 times. When we finally got to Ikea, there was a cop there directing traffic. This was the tragic foreshadowing that we COMPLETELY MISSED. I have never been to Ikea when it is so packed that you actually have to maneuver around the other people in the store. It had an almost claustrophobic feel to it. If you’ve ever been to the Atlanta Ikea, you will understand how difficult a thing that is. It’s freaking HUGE. We didn’t realize until much later that this was more than likely the back to college crowd clogging up the store.
Anyway, while it was quite packed, we still managed to get through the store in relatively good time. We were on a mission. We were not lollygagging. We had places to be later. When we got downstairs, the closer we got to the checkout, the louder the music got. I was a little surprised that the music was so loud. Why would they have the music turned up so loud?
Oh, I don’t know, maybe because it was a LIVE BAND PLAYING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING STORE. Right where you’re trying to maneuver the flat bed carts that like to glide to the right even though you’re going straight and you’re trying to avoid hitting any of the thousand people trying to get ahead of you so they can GET YOUR FURNITURE BEFORE YOU DO.
B and I each have a cart and we’ve managed to load up everything but the bed frame. We get to where the bed is and there is one left. ONE. While we’re standing there making sure it’s exactly what we want, SOME BITCH COMES UP AND STARTS PULLING IT OFF THE PALLET RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. When I said that we were there first, she went off on me about how she was there first and it was HER bed. She was mean and ugly about it. There was a part of me that really really REALLY wanted to go off on her about how I didn’t see her name on the fucking bed and that bullshit about how it was hers because she had been there first only counts if she HAD BEEN STANDING THERE WHEN WE WALKED UP. Fucking cunt.
I think it was at about this point that I e-mailed ESC (from my phone) for back up. At one point I may have gone a little overboard with the self-pity and may have mentioned something like “Oh woe is me” and/or “I am in the depths of despair.” Then I may have wailed about having to get the king size bed and I think ESC’s response was something like “king size? oh POOR YOU! let me get out my tiny, tiny violin…” But that’s a little hazy now. Ahem. By the way, ESC? If it wasn’t for you, I probably would have ended up in jail instead of going home. Thanks. I owe you one. (Psst. You are also partly responsible for the blog name change.)
Anyway, we were at the point of fish or cut bait and I think B was about to leave everything and just walk out of the store. But me? I am maybe stubborn. Just a wee tad. And I refused to leave the store without a bed. And we weren’t putting everything else back and getting a different series of furniture. We had our hearts set on the Malm bedroom furniture and we were leaving with it one way or another. We, or maybe I, insisted on the king-size bed. We were going to eventually get one down the road, so why not just say fuck it and get it now. So that’s what we did.
But, now that we have this king-size bed frame, we HAVE to get a new mattress because the old queen-size mattress definitely wasn’t going to fit. No problem, right? They had 8 fucking king-size beds, why wouldn’t they have a mattress? Well, guess what? NO FUCKING MATTRESS. At least, that’s what the customer service guy told B. (At this point, I am sitting out of the way with our two flat trolleys loaded with more furniture than you can shake a stick at.) He ran all over the store trying to finagle a mattress out of thin air AND HE DID IT. He is my hero.
There was some more drama when we checked out about how the mattress wasn’t rung up properly and didn’t generate a slip to pull the mattress over in full service, but after about 20 more minutes and B’s magic ability to conjure a mattress, we were loading up the truck to go home.
Oh, it’s not over yet. We get on the road and it is sunny and HOT AS FUCK and barely any clouds in the sky. We both talk to our respective fathers and both of them are telling us that it is darker than midnight and RAINING in Birmingham.
Terrific.
We decided that we would drive until we needed to stop and get a tarp. We made it to Pell City, AL before we had to stop and get a tarp. We made it home with everyone and everything all in one piece and our furniture didn’t get wet or warped.
OK, we left Birmingham at about 8:30 a.m. and didn’t get home until 7:00 p.m. It took about 3 hours for us to get there and somewhere between 3 – 3.5 hours to get home. And then we still had to put the bed together because at this point, we were determined that we would sleep on our new bed. We DESERVED it. Luckily, B’s father came over and helped him unload the truck while I went and got new bed linens. When I got back, B had most of the bed put together. Let’s just say that it was 11:00 p.m. before we got to bed and we only had the bed and one bedside table put together. We saved the rest for yesterday. But, we finally have a complete and matching bedroom suite. Amen.
No, I didn’t bother to make the bed. Why do you ask?
Really crappy picture of the chests of drawers.
Please ignore the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. We didn’t make it to the part where you put all your clothes into the new drawers just yet. We’re saving that for next weekend. Oh, and yes, I did get some knitting done on the way there and back.
CPH BACK
It’s a few cable repeats longer than that now. I took this picture shortly before we arrived at Ikea. I’m really liking the color contrast. If I had thought about it, I would have done only the cables in the red and not the two purl stitches on either side of the cables. But that’s minor and I REALLY love the way it looks. Besides, it’s a big enough pain in the ass with the 7 balls of yarn tangling up. I probably would have a lot more done if it wasn’t for the fact that I have to stop pretty much after every cable repeat to untangle the clusterfuck of yarn. But man oh man is it worth it.
I’m still recuperating from all the excitement of this weekend. Here’s to hoping that next weekend is much more mellow and relaxed!
Let me start out by saying that I have been working on the Kiri Shawl, but we are currently having issues and are trying to work out our differences. So, we’re taking some time apart. Mostly because I fucked up somewhere about two rows back and have too many stitches on the needle. It’s either that or I can’t count and really, it could go either way. So, the shawl is currently in time out. But to taunt it, I carry it with me everywhere. Ha! I’ll show you, shawl!
Ahem.
Anyway, I’ve been itching to start a sweater for awhile and I fell in love with the Central Park Hoodie so a few weeks back I ordered the back issue of Knit Scene. I oohed and ahhed over the cables and the construction and then I did nothing. Well, nothing related to knitting it, anyway. Last night, I finally decided to make some magic happened.
I even went so far as to swatch. I, uh, never bother with swatching. Now I know why. Here is my swatch:
Swatch of Doom
According to the pattern, (Which calls Tahki Donegal Tweed Yarn. Which I am not using.) the gauge for this sweater is 17 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches. I am substituting yarn because I have a lot of Suri Merino and bought is specifically to make a sweater. According to my personal swatch of doom, 17 stitches = 3.25 inches and 24 rows = 4 inches is what I get. This, of course, caused much whining and gnashing of teeth of biblical proportions.
Eh? What is this madness? You are both supposedly aran yarns! Obviously the Donegal Tweed is a fatter yarn. The pattern said aran yarn! I am using ARAN YARN! WHY DO YOU HATE ME??!!!??!?!?!?!?? AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
However, once I moved past this lovely little tantrum meltdown incident, I realized that while my stitch gage was a little less than desirable, my row gage was still on. This means, in my mind, that I can knit the hoodie a size larger than I intended and all will be well. And that is what I am going to do. So there Swatch of Doom! I outsmarted you! Plus, I have WAY more yarn than I probably need. The pattern calls for 8 balls of the Donegal Tweed and I have something like 15 or so balls of the Suri Merino. Now granted there is 183 yards to the ball of the DT, and only 110 yds to the ball for the SM, but I think I’ve got enough. Don’t you?
Let’s do some math to make sure. 8 balls of DT at 183 yds a ball = 1,464 yards according to Mr. Calculator. 15 balls of SM at 110 yds a ball = 1,650 yds. I think I’m good. Sweet.
Oh, also? I’ve decided to knit the ribbing at the bottom and all the cables in this lovely red color, but the body (background?) of the hoodie will be in the dark gray. I have something like 5 balls of the red and 10 of the grey. I’m not exactly sure if this is going to have the desired effect I want or if it is going to look very doomed. Hopefully it will look like something I want to wear.
Sweater of Doom? Only time will tell.
I think the colors go well together. I hope it turns out like I think it will. B’s helpful suggestions? “Well, if you don’t like how it turns out, you can always turn it into balls of yarn.” While this may be true, it was not exactly the vote of confidence I was hoping to get. Thanks, babe.
ANYWAY, I started on the back last night and managed to get this far while watching Eureka on the DVR (Like Tivo, but not Tivo.).
I am not a fast knitter.
Tomorrow we’re heading to IKEA to buy anew bed! and mattress! and bedsides tables! And it’s a good long drive. I think I can knit this while we’re in the car. Hopefully there will be progress! and pictures! and not a lot of ripping back. That is my prayer to the Knitting Goddess. May she hear my plea. Amen.
And, now for something completed unrelated but totally solidifies the fact that I am maybe not mentally stable. I like to play with my food and also take pictures. Because what fun is it to play with your food if you do not document it?
This is Babybel Gouda, also known as
Pac Man
Miss Pac Man
Builder Bob
Devil Cheese
Cheese is more fun to eat when you play with it. This is a well-known and scientifically documented fact.
